Judge orders cop chief to explain lack of response to 911 calls

Daniel TepferAugust 2, 2018

BRIDGEPORT - The call went out to the Police Department Thursday afternoon.

Officers rushed to the Fairfield County Courthouse.

Superior Court Judge Dale Radcliffe said he had enough of people making complaints to the Police Department of pending crime, only to be told to go to the court the next day and file for a civil protective order.

He wanted Chief Armando Perez before him pronto.

The last straw had been when a young woman tearfully told the judge Thursday that she had called 911 when a woman was breaking into her home and no officer came to her home.

“It’s things like this that erode confidence in the Police Department,” the judge said.

Shortly after the call went out Deputy Police Chief James Baraja and a sergeant were standing before the judge.

The woman, who was already in the courtroom, told the judge that shortly after 10 p.m. on July 10, she called 911 when a woman she is having a dispute with began yelling and pounding on her door, trying to get into her apartment.

“I told them what was going on but no one showed up, I told them she was trying to get in,” the woman, whose name is being withheld, told the judge.

She said she went to the Police Department the next day and spoke to a female officer on the front desk.

“I told her the lady was trying to break into my house but nobody came and she said, ‘oh wow,’” the woman complained to Radcliffe.

Still no report was made about the incident and instead, was told to go to court and get a civil protective order against the other woman.

“This is not the first instance of this type of thing,” the judge told Baraja. “There seems to be a reoccurring pattern of complaints being made to the Police Department and yet no responses are made, no report is made and the citizen, the city taxpayer, is told to go get a civil protective order the next day.”

Baraja responded that a report is mandatory in this type of situation and an arrest was a strong possibility if officers had responded.

“This is particularly disturbing because there was a call made when the incident was in progress,” the judge added. “There should be some policy in place because at the least what I heard could have been a disorderly conduct or a breach of peace arrest.”

Later, as he left the courtroom, Baraja admitted that mistakes were made.

“We are going to be looking into this, we are certainly going to make some changes,” he said.